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This past April, Mike Krzyzewski's coaching tree grew yet another branch when Marquette announced the hiring of longtime Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski. The 38-year-old was tabbed to replace Buzz Williams who left Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Blacksburg, Virginia and Virginia Tech. The big question all off-season for Marquette fans has been "What should we expect from Steve Wojciechowski?"
Fear not, the answer is in this article.
For starters, Marquette lost their top four scorers from last season, so to expect Wojciechowski to go out and win 25-30 games this year is a bit far-fetched. There is a good chance the Golden Eagles don't even make it to the NCAA Tournament. BYU transfer, guard Matt Carlino, will help the team pick up some of the slack offensively this season. Carlino averaged 13.7 points per game last year for the Cougars. Aside from him, the Golden Eagles will be relying on a lot of inexperienced players with high potential, like JuJuan Johnson (4.3 points per game last season) and Deonte Burton (6.9 points per game last season) to carry the load.
The news is not all bad for the Golden Eagles, however. Since taking the reigns at Marquette, Wojciechowski has landed two very formidable recruits from the class of 2015. The first recruit is No. 91 on Rivals150, Class of 2015 point guard Nick Noskowiak. The other recruit is 3-star center Matt Heldt. It is not surprising to see Wojciechowski going after frontcourt talent considering he has Johnson and Burton, and also considering he was in charge of the frontcourt players in his time at Duke.
Finally, Wojciechowski being Mike Krzyzewski's protégé may prove to be his biggest advantage of all. There are currently four other former members of Krzyzewski's coaching staff with head coaching jobs. Here is a look at how they have faired in their roles.
Coach | Team(s) | Years As Coach | Record | Tournament Appearances |
Tommy Amaker | Seton Hall, Michigan, Harvard | 1997-Present | 315-209 | 2000, 2012, 2013, 2014 |
Mike Brey | Delaware, Notre Dame | 1995-Present | 399-211 |
1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 |
Johnny Dawkins | Stanford | 2008-Present | 117-87 | 2014 |
Chris Collins | Northwestern | 2013-Present | 14-19 | --- |
As you can see, more often than not, Duke assistant coaches prove successful as head coaches. The jury is obviously still out on if this will continue for Wojciechowski, but it would be shocking if he cannot lead Marquette back to the top of the Big East by the 2016-2017 season.